When do I need CAT5 or CAT6 cables?

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southwestform

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Jun 9, 2014
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1. Does using CAT5 or CAT6 cables make a difference when connecting a cell phone extender to a switch? The cell phone extender enables me to have stronger cell phone reception in my home.

2. I have some cable that does not specify that it is CAT5 or CAT6, though it states UTP 24AWG. How do you determine if it is CAT5 or CAT6?

Thanks.
 
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If you are talking 10ft patch cables likely anything will work at that short a distance. It may not officially meet the specs but many things work in real life.
The cable should say EIA/TIA-568a someplace on it. That is more the standard than CAT5e or cat6. There is copper clad aluminum cable on the market that is using the term CAT5e but without the EIA/TIA marking. Being allowed to put the EIA/TIA marking on your cable means you paid to have your cable certified. Even though copper clad aluminum cable can not be certified it does work but can not go 100m...which doesn't matter if you only need to go 50m.

Pretty much in a home environment where you are not going to lose millions of dollars if a system fails you might as well...
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Iron124

Iron124

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Jun 1, 2014
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Unless you're working with some very insane bandwith speeds, Cat5 should work just fine.

Both Cat5 and Cat6 come back as options for "UTP 24AWG". Unsure of how to determine the difference, or if you even can, using those characters.
 
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Terrensa

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May 29, 2014
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Ethernet cables are grouped into sequentially numbered categories (“cat”) based on different specifications; sometimes the category is updated with further clarification or testing standards (e.g. 5e, 6a). These categories are how we can easily know what type of cable we need for a specific application. Manufacturers are required to adhere to the standards which makes our lives easier.
 
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bill001g

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Aug 9, 2012
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If you are talking 10ft patch cables likely anything will work at that short a distance. It may not officially meet the specs but many things work in real life.
The cable should say EIA/TIA-568a someplace on it. That is more the standard than CAT5e or cat6. There is copper clad aluminum cable on the market that is using the term CAT5e but without the EIA/TIA marking. Being allowed to put the EIA/TIA marking on your cable means you paid to have your cable certified. Even though copper clad aluminum cable can not be certified it does work but can not go 100m...which doesn't matter if you only need to go 50m.

Pretty much in a home environment where you are not going to lose millions of dollars if a system fails you might as well just try the cable and see if it works. If you get errors or the system does not work well you can then just go buy another cable. If you are really concerned just buy a certified cable now but I suspect the cable will work fine.
 
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